August 22, 201213 yr This is a pen I turned for our Daughter who is visiting this week. The blank is a cast acrylic decal blank from Woodcraft. It's a floral pattern with bird at the top of the blank. Turned with my Wood Pen Pro carbide tool and micro meshed to 12000 then buffed on my buffing wheels. The pen kit is a Wall Street II Elegant ball point Black Titanium &Â Platinum. I like the way it turned out. At first I wasn't sure if the floral colors would go with the black titanium but it works. Thanks for viewing.
August 22, 201213 yr Now that is cool, and perfect for the special girl in your life.I'd wondered about turning this material, does it have a strange odor? Or fine dust? Just curious.John MorrisThe Patriot WoodworkerProud Supporter of Wounded Warrior Project and Homes For Our Troops
August 22, 201213 yr Author Thanks John! When turning it comes off in ribbons and when I sand it I wet sand otherwise the acrylic will overheat and crack so there really isn't any dust. The biggest pain is the acrylic ribbons get wrapped around the blank and bushings but are easily removed. Depending on the tool used it's cloudy when turned until it's sanded and then it gets really nice and shiny.I have every thing set up for casting my own blanks but haven't had the time to cast anything. It's amazing what all you can use for pen blanks, Alligator jaw bones, snake skins, pine cones cores. Your only limited by your imagination.
August 22, 201213 yr Great looking pen Mike it does go well with the black titanium.John, usually the acrylic will give off an odor when being turned, and at times can give the turner a headache if the turning lasts too long and if in a not well ventilated area. To me though, the odor is not near as bad as turning antler.Mike, Just curious have you tried gluing antler and wood together? I ask because i have a short piece of antler that I would like to use in a pen but it's not long enough for a full blank.Charles NichollsSite Hostnicholls61@att.netProud supporter of The Wounded Warrior Project, Homes For Our Troops and the NRA
August 22, 201213 yr Author When turning acrylic I've never noticed an odor but different people have different reactions to materials. Buffalo antler however has a very strong odor, 10 times worse than deer or elk antler.I have turned lots of antler and even laminated it with wood. The important thing to do before gluing the tube in after drilling is to completely saturate the inside of the bore with thin CA to fill in all the pores. I do this several times before gluing the tube in place with epoxy, otherwise you can have a weak bond and the antler loosen during turning or even periods of time after assembly of the kit.When laminating  antler with other materials such as wood, acrylic, metals I will saturate the mating surface of the antler with CA several times. After the CA has cured I pre drill the hole then saturate the hole with CA and allow the CA to cure for a few days so that the glue has a chance to gas off. After curing I assemble the antler and other material to the pen tube and each other with 2 part epoxy using the pen tube to keep everything aligned and clamp the pieces together. Do not over tighten the assembly or you'll squeeze the epoxy out from between the antler and other material causing a weak joint that can fail. Once the epoxy has cured, trim the blank as normal and turn the blank. As you turn and see exposed pores in the antler appear flood the pores with CA as you turn until you reach your desired dimension.When using different materials together that are at an angle to the pen tube I'll laminate the materials together before drilling. Once cured I drill the pen tube hole at a slow feed rate being careful not to overheat the blank which can cause cracking of the antler and or failure of the glue joint. Depending on the tube size I sometimes will drill a pilot hole with a smaller bit working up to the finished size. Whenever metal is incorporated in my blank I DO NOT use brad point bits and always use smaller bits working up to finished dimension regardless of laminate orientation. When sanding remember different materials laminated together will have differing hardness's and you should keep this in mind and spend less time sanding the softer material or you can create ridges or valleys in the blank.There are many opinions on this topic but this is how I have been doing laminated (segmented) blanks and it works for me.  I got here by trial and error on my part and others involved in the craft and in several years I have not had one failure or return since using these techniques.I don't want a buyer that shelled out $$$$ for one of my pens to come back and say the blank failed. If it fails due to no fault of the buyer I will replace it at no cost to the buyer and that is a lifetime guarantee for the blank. With that said I sell very few to the general public for obvious reasons. My customers are friends or friends of friends or associates at work but I'm not in it as a business. All profits go back into materials and or equipment.This process can be time consuming and at times frustrating but when you get the results that your looking for there is no greater satisfaction than seeing something you created with your talent and imagination. Where there's a will there's a way!
August 22, 201213 yr Great info Mike Thank you very much!Mike Dillen said:When turning acrylic I've never noticed an odor but different people have different reactions to materials. Buffalo antler however has a very strong odor, 10 times worse than deer or elk antler.I have turned lots of antler and even laminated it with wood. The important thing to do before gluing the tube in after drilling is to completely saturate the inside of the bore with thin CA to fill in all the pores. I do this several times before gluing the tube in place with epoxy, otherwise you can have a weak bond and the antler loosen during turning or even periods of time after assembly of the kit.When laminating  antler with other materials such as wood, acrylic, metals I will saturate the mating surface of the antler with CA several times. After the CA has cured I pre drill the hole then saturate the hole with CA and allow the CA to cure for a few days so that the glue has a chance to gas off. After curing I assemble the antler and other material to the pen tube and each other with 2 part epoxy using the pen tube to keep everything aligned and clamp the pieces together. Do not over tighten the assembly or you'll squeeze the epoxy out from between the antler and other material causing a weak joint that can fail. Once the epoxy has cured, trim the blank as normal and turn the blank. As you turn and see exposed pores in the antler appear flood the pores with CA as you turn until you reach your desired dimension.When using different materials together that are at an angle to the pen tube I'll laminate the materials together before drilling. Once cured I drill the pen tube hole at a slow feed rate being careful not to overheat the blank which can cause cracking of the antler and or failure of the glue joint. Depending on the tube size I sometimes will drill a pilot hole with a smaller bit working up to the finished size. Whenever metal is incorporated in my blank I DO NOT use brad point bits and always use smaller bits working up to finished dimension regardless of laminate orientation. When sanding remember different materials laminated together will have differing hardness's and you should keep this in mind and spend less time sanding the softer material or you can create ridges or valleys in the blank.There are many opinions on this topic but this is how I have been doing laminated (segmented) blanks and it works for me.  I got here by trial and error on my part and others involved in the craft and in several years I have not had one failure or return since using these techniques.I don't want a buyer that shelled out $$$$ for one of my pens to come back and say the blank failed. If it fails due to no fault of the buyer I will replace it at no cost to the buyer and that is a lifetime guarantee for the blank. With that said I sell very few to the general public for obvious reasons. My customers are friends or friends of friends or associates at work but I'm not in it as a business. All profits go back into materials and or equipment.This process can be time consuming and at times frustrating but when you get the results that your looking for there is no greater satisfaction than seeing something you created with your talent and imagination. Where there's a will there's a way!
August 22, 201213 yr Author Anytime Charles.Joe I use a micrometer and feel. The hardest part was matching the taper of the blank to the pen nib so there is a graceful transition. On other kits that's not always possible depending on the kits design which is why I like the Wall street, Sierra..etc etc due to the gradual transition. Â
August 22, 201213 yr It is beautiful. I like how the pattern slowly unfolds and voila, you see the bird ... Nice!
August 23, 201213 yr Mike, thats an amazing looking pen, I bet she won't let anyone borrow it GregScroll Saw forum hosthttp://www.thesawdustfactoryga.com/
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